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Wednesday, 27 May 2015

Watercolour sketch from Topps Hot & Cold Food Bar in Ramsgate, some thoughts on Manston, Pleasurama, the Pav and the blog and the ramble and the bit at the end.

This Ramsgate watercolour sketch falls into the preliminary
go at a view category, I will have another go at this one as, possibly with a
bigger sheet of paper.

Here is the photo for art critics, the A4 sketch took about
an hour and I guess that an A3 one would take about twice as long.

Topps Hot & Cold Food Bar in Ramsgate

£3 all day breakfast including drink and view, good quality cafe fare, probably the best value in town.

A bit of Manston news which is that Chris Wells addressed
the SuMA meeting and said that he hoped that he would have all the information
for the next stage of starting the cpo for the TDC cabinet meeting on 18th
June.

The message that I am not getting from our new council yet
is that they will hold a public consultation on the Manston site, and I figure
that this was the big mistake that Labour made, I guess the penny will drop
eventually.

What the council lack is any sort of public mandate to start a cpo
for an airfreight hub although there is a mandate of sorts linked to the
election for saving the airport. I don’t really know what the new UKIP group
are hoping for, perhaps it really is to build an airfreight hub at Manson using
a cpo, perhaps they are hoping that RiverOak will just not come up with the
funds and it will all go away.

On to the Pav as I guess most people know Weatherspoon put
in plans on 15th January and now it is nearly flaming June and nothing seems to
have happened, the rumour is they have pulled out.

Pleasurama although there have been rumours recently that
the development is not going to happen, despite promises by the last
administration that work would be underway by the election, Cardy still seem to
be saying that they are waiting for the work on the cliff repairs before
starting on site. I am not really sure who is supposed to be paying for the
cliff repairs so not really sure who is waiting for who.

I guess if the council could do anything useful at this
stage a flood risk assessment for the whole area would be top of the list,
particularly as the sea defences in front of The Pav and Pleasurama are the responsibility
of the council and not like the rest of the Thanet sea defences owned and maintained
by the EA.

This blog, not perhaps that interesting subject to most
readers, is getting much more manageable since I stopped anonymous comments,
less than 10 spam comments this week.

Note of a meeting to consider next steps regarding the Eurokent Planning Application.

Wednesday 23rd October 2013, County Hall, Maidstone

Present:

Paul Carter

Clive Hart

Theresa Bruton

Sue McGonigal

Following the TDC Planning Committee’s refusal to grant planning approval to the Eurokent mixed use application last week the meeting was called for the two members of EKO (KCC and TDC) to consider options for moving forward.

Having discussed the brief background and potential options the following was agreed.

A Decision Notice relating to the refusal at 16th October will be issued by TDC today, 23rd October.

EKO/Rosefarm application to be ‘resubmitted’ for the December meeting (if November definitely confirmed as not feasible)

The original submission will remain unchanged from EKO’s perspective. No additional public consultation will be required. No additional charges/fees will be made

A different planning officer will be assigned at TDC

The planning officer’s report will be changed to highlight a change in circumstances i.e. no SE Plan, a recasting of local housing figures that demonstrate a ‘slight shortage’, emerging local plan designating the site as mixed use.

To progress this, TDC is seeking legal advice regarding the housing number issue and will be speaking with ward members and the planning committee to fully appraise them of the new circumstances and implications of their actions.

In the meantime:

Both parties will take independent advice about the next steps should the advice received by TDC not support the resubmission proposal or if the resubmission is unsuccessful in December and TDC then still not supportive of progressing urgently to appeal. This to be in light of the conditions set out for dispute resolution in the Members Agreement for EKO.

Sue and Theresa will advise Matt regarding discussions with Rosefarm with the aim of taking him with us in the current proposal emphasising the legal and appropriate nature of the proposed actions.

Sue to consider Theresa’s suggestion that KCC planning team could offer support to TDC team on revising the planning report if required.

3 comments:

If UKIP fail to hold a public consultation over Riveroak's plans for the former airfield, they will be making a big mistake. Over the Summer, Cartner and Musgrave have stated they they will be exhibiting the detailed plans they have for the site and will be engaging with the public over those plans. It is going to look mighty strange if the council, is seen to be opposing those plans but is not prepared to expose their preferred option to the same level of public scrutiny.

Arjun I guess the trickiest bit is that RiverOak have set up their company in a way that it is impossible to check who the shareholders are, so neither the electors not the council can tell if individual councillors would be beneficiaries if RiverOak were to acquire the site. As RiverOak seem to be saying they hope to pay around $10,000,000 for the site which would have a developed residential value in excess of $1,000,000,000, which is over 100 times the value and RiverOak mostly develop residential property it begs some difficult questions. My guess would be that RiverOak are about as likely to turn down making a billion dollars as any other property hedge fund company.

I guess the conversation in the RiverOak office would go something like this. “Hey guys we stand to make a billion if we develop the Manston site, but heck lets run it as an airport with marginal profit expectations. Now about telling our shareholders, any takers?”

It is bewildering that the governing party/ies at TDC would rather have a putative "airport" employing a couple of hundred people (at most), rather than the Discovery Park team's plan which looks like it could create four figures worth of jobs - at various levels.

Ignoring the frankly specious "we need an airport" argument, which the last 20-odd years of failures has shown is patently not the case, it makes very little sense econommically.

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